Metroid: Wrath Of A Bounty Hunter
by Sharonlover
Summary: A Super Metroid Novelization. Chapter 3 is up. A little slow but hopefully I can pick up some speed and action here soon. Please...read and review and suggest -Sharonlover-
1. Default Chapter

Metroid: Wrath of a Bounty Hunter

Recreated by:

Matthew Sharonlover Sharpe

As with any fan fiction, the characters, quotes, and direct game events, are owned by Nintendo; Captain Hunter, if he appears, is of my own creation. Everything is Nintendo's, so please no suing...besides I'm just a poor Metroid fan boy who spends all his money on the Metroid Franchise.

A/N: This fan fiction is yet another re-telling of the events that occur in Super Metroid. As with any of my fan-fiction there is a single timeline these stories follow. In a prequel, viewable here at under "In One We Will Find A Warrior", we follow Samus as her life is destroyed and rebuilt again to become protector of the Chozo. During this prequel, Samus falls in love with a bounty hunter, Houston Armstrong; however, between Metroid and Metroid II, he has disappeared without a clue as to where he went. Samus also suffered amnesia in this prequel, but I don't know if this condition will reflect greatly in the story. Just a quick heads up on that. Please don't forget to review. Thanks.

Prologue

_"The last Metroid is in captivity...the galaxy is at peace."_

The legendary bounty hunter, Samus Aran, sat at her ship's console recounting her recent adventures; her golden strands of blonde hair fell against her orange and brown power suit. The once powerful arm cannon lay on a nearby shelf waiting patiently for action; her recent battle with the Metroid Queen ended with a damaged power suit and weapons. Repairs to the suit had been refined to removing the damaged accessories and welding portions of the basic power suit back together. The repairs to the suit had been successful, but the weapons and accessories that she had worked so hard to obtained were gone once more. As Samus was entering these memories into the ship's log, a red light began flashing on her screen; a distress signal from the Ceres Research Space Colony, a station she had left only an hour ago, was in trouble. The ship turned from its set course and began trekking back toward the station at full speed as Samus continued her log.

_"I first battled the Metroids on Planet Zebes, it was there that I foiled the plans of the space pirate leader Mother Brain to sue the creatures to attack galactic civilization. While leaving Zebes, I picked up a faint signal from a Space Pirate ship, and I soon found myself fighting the Space Pirates again as well as a new type of Metroid, Metroid Prime. The Space Pirates planned to use Prime for their own evil purposes, but I was there to make sure those plans failed. Thinking all was well; I received word from Galactic Federation that a small group of troopers had disappeared on Planet Aether where a strange disturbance had been reported. I found myself put against the pirates again, but to my surprise, the Phazon they were there for, was not the reason for my calling. I was pitted against enemies I had never before encountered and friends that would help me to defeat these creatures."_

Samus sat back against her pilot's chair, stretching her arms above her head and yawning; three weeks had gone by without a good nights sleep and it had started to catch up with her. She thought about the next entry she was about to make, her most current memories and the battle was still fresh in her mind. The Galactic Federation had extended her bounty from her Zebes mission to include eradicating the Metroid species from all existence; a group of troopers had found a nest of Metroids on a planet labeled as SR-388. Samus' later learned during her mission that SR-388 was the Metroids home world as well as a safe haven for the Chozo civilization at one point.

_I next fought the Metroids on their home world, SR-388. I completely eradicated them except for a larva, which after hatching followed me like a confused child._

Samus remembered when the little bugger hatch; Samus had come across the egg and was about to blast it, the last one on the planet, but when it began to crack and the baby Metroid rose from the shell, she had felt pity. The Metroid had circled her many times, seemingly confused by a presence that didn't seem anything like its mother, but in its mind, Samus was the first person it had seen and now they shared a relationship. Samus' emotions had clouded her mind and she felt compelled to keep the Metroid, but then rumors would start and that was the last thing she needed; therefore, it was in her best interest and the interest of the scientific community to drop it off at the nearest Galactic Research Station, Ceres Space Colony.

_I personally delivered it to the Galactic Research Station at Ceres so scientists could study its energy producing qualities. The scientists' findings were astounding! They discovered that the powers of the Metroid might be harnessed for the good of civilization! Satisfied that all was well, I left the station to seek a new bounty. But, I had hardly gone beyond the asteroid belt when I picked up a distress signal! Ceres station was under attack!!"_

Samus closed the console screen she was working on as the space station came into sight through the view port; the docking station's bay doors stood wide open as the ship came closer. Samus slowed the engines to a slow crawl assessing the immediate area for any sign of an ambush. The station seemed to be intact; at least on the outside, and according to the ship's sensors, the emergency systems had been activated within the station, only obvious on the outside by the absence of the normal operating white docking lights.

"Ceres command...do you copy?" Samus asked into the COM link, expecting an answer from the control room. "I repeat. Ceres command...do you copy?" No answer. Samus tried sending the control room a message from the ship but after five minutes, there was still no answer. Samus tapped her finger on the console impatiently, she didn't want to rush head first into the station, but on the other hand, the Metroid Hatchling was in there somewhere, and whether or not it was alive or dead, she had to recover it. A simple DNA sample in the wrong hands could bring the Metroid population back into existence and threaten the galaxy by those who would re-incarnate them.

Samus pushed the throttle forward on her ship and brought the tiny vessel around to the docking bay doors and after a quick scan of the immediate interior, she assumed it was secure. The ship slowly settled in the darkened docking bay, the red glow of emergency lights faded in and out illuminating the small station momentarily. Samus noted that no damage had been done to this particular room as she used the ships front search light to visually check the area. Cargo boxes were still stacked neatly along one side of the bay, just as she had last seen them and even the station's research vessels were there.

Samus turned in her pilot chair and reached for her helmet, the green visor was lifeless and as she slipped it over her head, she carefully tucked her blonde hair into the top. The second she latched the helmet on, a sucking sound emanated indicating the helmet had locked on; this action caused the suit to come to life. The HUD came up first running diagnostics on the suit before displaying her status. A single full energy tank showed in the upper left hand corner and that was it; she reached for the arm cannon and locked it onto her right arm with a twist. The suit checked the status of the arm cannon as it was recognized, showing that her only option with it was the power beam. In full armor, Samus walked toward topside hatch on her ship and pressing a button on the wall, she allowed the yellow disc of energy to raise her to the top of the ship.

In the docking bay, Samus cautiously made her way toward the elevator, stealing a peek inside one of the research vessels between her and the door. The inside of the ship was slightly lit by a light hanging over the main console, papers had been neatly stacked in a bin; a steaming cup of coffee slightly fogged the opposite window. A look toward the back of the vessel was pointless without any further light and so Samus continued toward the elevator; her armor, normally clanging on the metallic floor was soundless in the airless chamber. The elevator door opened automatically as Samus came up to it, the yellow disc of energy glowed brightly within the small tubular room. Samus stepped onto the disc, the door closed and pressurized before starting down the elevator tube.


	2. Ceres Space Station

Chapter 2

Ceres Space Colony

The yellow disc of energy came to a stop as it finished its descent into the space station. The elevator tube stopped just above the ceiling before floating down to its energized base. Samus first noticed that the stairwell had been completely destroyed and the stairwell landing platforms that jutted were the only way down the twisted maze of steel and concrete. Some type of explosive had completely obliterated this room; though there was no sign of actual struggle; it was as if whomever had detonated the explosive was merely attempting to cut off access to escape points. Samus dropped from one landing to another, making her way through the tangle to reach the door at the bottom; her arm cannon was armed and ready for action. Electricity still ran through the station, Samus noted, as the door opened itself as she approached it; the cargo hold lay within the door. Though the electricity was still on, the overhead lighting had been dimmed down to where only silhouettes of the cargo boxes could be seen lying around, undisturbed since her visit.

With nothing of interest in the cargo hold, Samus continued to make her way to the lab; this is where she was really in a hurry to get. The Metroid hatchling was a big threat and she wanted to make sure it hadn't gone anywhere. The lab doors slid open as Samus approached them and she peeked in expecting to find the Metroid floating in its containment cell. As Samus expected though, no such luck; the Metroid's containment cell was missing, the glass cell that held the container had been breached, and shards of glass littered the floor. As Samus followed the trail of destruction, she came across a stream of blood and traced it to one of the lab workers. The researcher's lab coat was drenched in fresh blood; a hole was torn through the scientist's chest, leaving a gaping void where his lungs should have been. The skin hung in torn chunks as the blood dripped into the thick syrupy pool his body lay in.

Samus took note of another scientist laying dead in the corner, his demise much the same as the scientist in front of her, his mouth open in twisted agony with his eyes rolled toward the top of his head; his white beard dyed slightly red as a small trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. She remembered talking to the researcher in regards to properly containing the Metroid while they were researching it, as well as ways to immobilize it if it were to escape from its containment unit. Looking back at the bodies and the broken glass cell, Samus knew that this was no Metroid attack; someone or something had ravaged this lab. A nearby flashing monitor caught Samus' attention and she walked over to the console; the screen was flashing vitals of its experiment and according to its real-time data, the Metroid was still alive and nearby. The scientists had planted a vital signs monitor in the hatchlings container and it was still reading its life signs. "It must be close by", Samus mumbled to her, pulling away from the screen and taking one more look at the bodies before leaving the lab.

Samus exited the far side of the lab and followed a trail of dripped blood down the hallway and into one of the lab's storage rooms. The doors slid open and the blood trail stopped abruptly, the cold air in the room caused steam to rise lazily off of Samus' power suit. The room was lit by a single spotlight bulb hanging from the middle of the roof, creating a circle of light; Samus sighed in relief as she noticed the glass containment holding the Metroid hatchling. As Samus approached it the Metroid sensed her presence and began chirping excitedly; but before Samus could reach it, the bulb busted and a cold wind swept by Samus and for a second, the suit became extremely cold before adjusting to the temperature again. Samus flipped back and armed her cannon, aiming into the dark blindly but not firing at anything. The only thing she could see was the Metroid floating in its capsule; it's chirping was now accompanied by the sound of something tapping on glass.

"Show yourself!" Samus said, searching blindly in the dark. As if complying with her demands, a pair of yellow eyes appeared above the hatchling, a yellow blaze of fury seemed to dance within their deep sockets. Whoever it was, they were not happy to see Samus and let her know by spitting a blast of fire at her. She quickly dodged the shot causing a storage container behind her to blow up; it lit up the room and Samus confronted her attacker.

Fire reflected in the attackers eyes, and a small flame licked deep within his throat, clearly visible between the creature's nearly perfect aligned yet jagged teeth that lined his scaly reddish-purple snout. He was lightly perched atop the Metroid's container, his sharp talons wrapped around the glass prison, tapping the glass impatiently; his wings were folded along his back, almost fading into his body. Samus' suit registered the dragon's hot breath as it steamed from his mouth, "Samus Aran", the dragon hissed, barely audible to the bounty hunter.

"Ridley? How the…" Samus stuttered trying to comprehend her situation. "I thought I killed you…again?"

"Again, you can clearly see your assumption was wrong my little pawn", Ridley said, straightening his back as if he was about to stretch, but instead came back into his previous slouching position.

"So how did you weasel your way out of hell this time?" Samus asked curiously.

"Weaseling had nothing to do with my return this time; however, the out cropping of rock I was able to grab as I fell from the temple's ledge managed to save my life. Enough about me though; you on the other hand amaze me. Everywhere I turn, I seem to be running into you and it's for all the same reasons. You are as much obsessed with the Metroid species as the Space Pirates are."

"My only concern with the Metroids is keeping them from the pirates. Now if you will be so kind to slither away from that container, I might think about letting you live", Samus said bringing her arm cannon up toward Ridley's chest.

"Always in such a rush", Ridley said shaking his head. "You always tend to make that mistake; rushing a move could cause you the game", he continued.

"How many times do I have to tell you? This isn't a game. Now move it", Samus said firing a warning shot; it hit the wall directly behind him, just shy of his head.

"Very well then", Ridley said spreading his wings and taking to the air, "We will do this the hard way…again." Ridley rose toward the ceiling, dodging Samus' power beam as he gained altitude.

"Damn it", Samus mumbled as she began firing at the dragon. Ridley swooped down from the ceiling and using his tail as a projectile, shot it at Samus. Samus easily dodged the tail but was slow in recovering and was hit by a fire blast. The suit began heating up and Samus somersaulted out of the flames. "By the by? What happened to the nice metallic trimmings you had?" Samus asked crouching to one knee.

"Thanks to you, they were damaged beyond repair. That was perfectly fine though as I found out that they were actually holding me back from my true potential", Ridley said, a small scowl forming across his face. He continued attacking the bounty hunter with a combination of fire blasts and tail whips, successfully wearing down Samus.

"_I have to get that container_", Samus thought to herself, stealing a glance at the container holding the Metroid. Samus made a lunge for the containment unit, but Ridley had read her mind and swooped down to counter her attempt to retrieve the Metroid. The capsule slipped out of Samus' hand as Ridley's talon knocked her arm away; the glass container rolled away toward the wall, lightly clanging as it stopped. Samus rolled backwards and jumped toward the wall, planted an arm against the wall and launched herself again. While air born, Samus brought her knee down across Ridley's bony spine; he shrieked in surprise and fell to the ground. The two looked at each other hatefully from the floor and then at the Metroid's capsule sitting only a few feet away. Samus fired her cannon at Ridley, hitting him point blank in the wing; she quickly scrambled to her feet and made a mad dash for the glass container. The Metroid hatchling squealed excitedly as Samus came closer, urging her along faster. From behind her, Samus felt the scratch of a nail against the back of her armor and was then blinded as a wing covered her visor. The red dragon proceeded to hit her with his tail and when she recovered, she found Ridley flying near the ceiling, his claws tightly wrapped around the glass container.

"Nice try pawn but not good enough", Ridley scowled down at the bounty hunter.

"Give it up Ridley. You know you can't beat me", Samus said in frustration, as the truth was, she couldn't beat him right now; she didn't have the necessary weaponry to kick his scaly ass.

"I think not", Ridley said, blasting a hole in the wall. "I have no more time to play with you; Mother Brain is eagerly awaiting my arrival", Ridley said flying for the newly created hole. Samus tried stopping the dragon but he just continued to dodge the attacks. He looked behind him one more time, "Oh and enjoy my going away present…checkmate."

As Ridley disappeared into the maze of massacred metal, a computerize female voice came on over the intercom, "The space station will self-destruct in three minutes."

Samus sighed to herself; she was tired of trying to beat the clock to survive yet another day. Red emergency lights began to strobe as the computer continued counting down the time until the station would explode. Samus ran from the room as fast as she could, dodging objects as they began to fall from the ceiling. Once in the elevator shaft, the entire colony began swaying from side to side as the gravity generator's conditions began to deteriorate, making Samus' trek up the mangled mass of metal much harder as steam from busted lines fogged her visor.

……

Ridley watched from a distance asteroid as the small space station began erupting in flames. An evil smile crossed his face and then he covered his eyes as the entire space station was enveloped in a bright explosion. What he didn't see in that small amount of time was a small yellow ship fly out from the epic center of the explosion and made its way to safety. Ridley uncovered his eyes as the blinding light dimmed down and looked at the Metroid hatchling within the glass container. "Well my little friend, it seems the bounty hunter is no more and now its time for you to meet a good friend of mine." Ridley spread his wings and made his way to the Space Pirate base.


	3. Planet Zebes

Chapter 3

Planet Zebes

Samus' ship slipped into the lower atmosphere of Planet Zebes with little effort; the thick black upper clouds flashed violently with jagged streaks of lightning. As the little ship broke through the upper layer of clouds, the ship became soaked in the torrential rain as it descended toward the surface, and with a flip of a switch, the anti-gravity thrusters initialized and brought the vessel to a sound halt a couple of feet off of the ground.

Samus stepped out of her ship and landed on the water soaked ground and punched a few commands into her power suit causing her ship to secure itself. Samus had followed Ridley's trail back to the Planet Zebes after the explosion at the Ceres Space Station; the fact that Ridley returned here was a little surprising since her last visit had obliterated the pirate's base. The rain pattered off of her suit and soon little rivulets of water began streaming down her visor; lighting struck nearby, the flash highlighting the power suit against the dark and rocky terrain.

_"Welcome home girl"_, Samus thought to herself, recalling what memories she could of her childhood. She remembered playing with the Chozo young and training under the watchful eye of their tribal leader Old Bird. There was a time in Samus' life when she lived with her own parents, but those days were vague to her even though the face of her father and mother were as clear as if they stood before her now. Her parents had been murdered in an attack by the Space Pirate legion; afterwards, the Chozo had arrived to investigate, finding only the young Samus as the sole survivor. The Chozo themselves had been harassed by the Space Pirate general, Ridley, and his company of minions. The Chozo were told in a prophesy of a stranger that would become their defender and little did the Space Pirate leader Ridley know when he left the young Samus alive that day, that she would one day return to devastate his forces and free the Chozo from their fear of further attacks. Samus' first attempts at stopping the pirates failed, forcing the Chozo to leave Planet Zebes and take refuge on nearby Amidos where they reside to this day.

Samus let out another heavy sigh and snapped back to reality; she carefully took in her immediate surrounding. She had landed in the Crateria region of Zebes, the very place she had grown up at. The valley seemed dead, no visible signs of life were evident and the rain that poured from the open skies tested as being acidic. The atmosphere had changed greatly since her youth, and exposure to it would mean massive trauma to vital organs. Nearby, Samus spotted a door; the same door she had used to escape from Planet Zebes as the labyrinth of tunnels collapsed under explosive force beneath the surface from her first assault. Samus ran for the door and blasted it open with her arm cannon, sliding past the retracting metal and into the dimly lit tunnel. A purple haze shifted lazily within the tunnel Samus had entered; some type of green algae had made its home on the dampened walls of the rocky corridor.

Samus followed the cave till it dropped off into a crevice, small outcropping of rock created ledges just big enough for her to jump down to the blue door she had spotted at the bottom. Once through the door, Samus found herself in the abandoned escape shaft she had used to flee the impending doom of the pirate base; she leapt off from the top platform and fell down one of the sides of the three hundred foot drop. She fell gracefully, unconcerned for her landing, knowing fully that the suits material would break the laws of gravity and instead of falling at 9.8 feet per second it would only be around four feet per second. The Chozo technology was amazing and she could never help but be amazed at how advanced the species was, but at the same time, how primitive they chose to live. Though the impact would not be like that of a normal falling object, she braced for the landing, as the inertia would still jolt her from the fall.

With a successful landing, the bounty huntress knew what she would find behind the next door; the Mother Brain's lair, the area of Tourian that the hideous genius behind the pirate legion claimed as its own. Only a few pirates were granted permission to enter Tourian, those that overlooked and worked the research on Metroids, and her two highest-ranking officials, Kraid and Ridley. The Mother Brain's lair lay in ruins as Samus entered the room, the life-support and data lines that kept the brain running and informed hung lifelessly from the broken cell the gray matter once occupied. Shards of glass remained, hanging like stalactites from the cells metal structure; the same held true for the Zebites barriers the Mother Brain used to protect her from unauthorized intruders.

The barriers hadn't held up too well when they crossed Samus Aran's powerful arm cannon; she had seared the fleshy material behind the glass tube rather easily as she advanced in on the Mother Brain. The fight with her had been no easy chore; the entire battle consisted mostly of her dodging plasma beams and Rinkos, all the while trying to stay perched atop a ledge above the boiling acid beneath her. In the end, she had defeated the hideous creature and won victory over the pirates; or so she had thought, but now it was more than obvious to her that she had failed.

Samus made her way out of the hazy room and much to her surprise, Samus found an elevator in the next room. _The explosion must have caused a change in the interior tunnels of the planet_, she thought to herself; power still ran through the elevator and out of curiosity, the bounty hunter rode the device down. She expected the elevator shaft to be destroyed at one point but signs of repair could be seen across the tubular glass structure as it descended through the rock and soon the platform came to a rest at the end of its track.

Bluish-purple rock surrounded Samus and she immediately knew where she was; Brinstar had been notorious for its rich Denzium rock, a strong molten formation mostly used for securing restricted areas. Samus recognized her exact location instantly as being where she had first entered Zebes on her previous mission, and if her bearings were right, she would be able to find the morph ball to her right. After a quick climb over a wall, Samus found that she had indeed been right; the hologram that represented morph ball technology dimly spun on a pedestal and as she passed her hand over the hologram, her suit came to life. She didn't resist the suits forceful movement of her body and she soon found herself rolled into a small ball. From the floor, a compartment opened up and two separate halves of the morph ball appeared enshrouding the bounty hunter in its metal before clamping on.

Samus rose out of the ball reading the screen that appeared in her visor, "Morph Ball obtained." _"This should make things a little more simpler"_, she thought to herself while making her way through a couple more rooms, collecting two packs of missiles along the way. As Samus collected the last pack of missiles located on a shelf against a wall, a small beam of yellow light engulfed her. She covered her visor and glanced up the wall to find an eyeball looking camera shining a spotlight on her; she fired her cannon at it but the camera was unaffected. She quickly rolled out from its gaze and once out of sight, the bright light turned off. _"Damn. What the hell was that?"_ She asked herself, heading back too the elevator and taking it up.

A/N Well the end of another chapter. This story is gonna be really hard to do without making it too boring. Hopefully the next chapter will pick up a little more speed though. I know for sure that the fifth chapter should be full of drama.


End file.
